I'm hate to say this but recommending products from Sony and Apple to replace Microsoft is pretty bad. Ever heard the saying out of the frying pan and into the fire. If I had to choose the lesser of Evils in this list of three, I would have to give my money to Microsoft. Of course I have not intention to give Microsoft crap, but I sure as heck am not giving anything to Sony! If you can't figure out why then maybe you should some research on Sony and Apple. Bottom line is MS is not the only company we need to be avoiding.

I advise using free software like Linux, or BSD. I pefer Debian or debian based Linux distros they are much better for the 'desktop' the rpm based linux distros like Fedora. But for servers I tend to like an rpm based distro.

As far as video game systems Well I guess you have to go with the underdog and get a Wii. You say that sucks, well some times you have to take a stand and say I'm not giving these companies my money if If I have to do without, and when enough people do it then the next version of he Wii will kick but and MS and Sony will realize they need to treat their customers better.

Yes, you are right that Apple and Sony both pull some of the same shenanigans that are listed as reasons to avoid Microsoft. There are some important differences, though. First and foremost, when this article was written, Microsoft had a de facto monopoly on operating systems and they were legally convicted of abusing it. It is much more important to foster choice where effectively none exists, and Sony and Apple do not have monopolies in fundamentally key technologies. They can be evil, but consumers do have viable choices when they are. Second, I have to disagree that Microsoft is the least evil of the three. Apple and Sony may be worse on some individual points than Microsoft (e.g., Apple on openness), but taken collectively, the list of reasons to dislike Microsoft is a good deal longer. The weight that you put on individual items in the list is obviously subjective, though, which is why I emphasize that it's more important that Microsoft held and abused a monopoly on a fundamentally key technology. (I use the past tense because while they still do have an effective monopoly on operating systems, that is becoming increasingly irrelevant thanks to Google, et al.)